03-07-2025
How much sleep does your child need and what can you do to help?
Ask a parent what keeps them up at night, and the answer may well be their child's sleep
Battles over bedtime are nothing new. However, across age groups and continents, concerns are growing that children are sleeping significantly less than they need, with consequences that go beyond grumpy mornings.
'Sleep is of immense importance,' said Professor Gareth Gaskell, a psychologist at the University of York. 'It plays a critical role in memory consolidation, language learning, attention — even emotional resilience.'
Yet surveys suggest that many youngsters are falling short. One long-running study found that less than half of 13-year-olds and less than a quarter of 15-year-olds are getting at least 8.5 hours each school night.
Meanwhile, the proportion of 11-year-old girls who said they were not getting enough sleep to feel awake and concentrate on schoolwork nearly tripled between 2015 and 2022, according to the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children study.
